Health Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is an ancient Hindu practice to attain spirituality that originated in India. This practice is caught on in the western world and now is spreading to a number of countries like wild fire. And the reason for that is because it has both its preventive and therapeutic cures over ailing mind and body.

Experts of yoga believe that it unifies the body, mind and spirit leading to a very holistic approach in health and wellness. It combines both physical exercises and breathing techniques to assist you achieve physical and mental well-being. Yoga can be a useful means for both children and adults to developing calmness, focus, and body awareness.

Regular practice of asanas, pranayama and meditation can offer so many benefits. Here are a few noted below:

1. Strengthens muscles: The asanas (physical poses) in yoga will make sure that each and every muscle group of your body is thoroughly exercised and strengthened. Many yoga poses require you to support your own body weight, thus helping you build strength in different parts of the body. For example, Tree Pose include balancing on one leg which helps to build strength in your lower body. Downward Facing Dog include supporting yourself with your arms which help build upper-body strength. Even poses which focuses on less movement and more precise alignment in poses, or moving slowly in and out of the poses, can provide strength and endurance benefits.

2. Increases flexibility: Yoga stretches not only your muscles but all of the soft tissues (around your muscles like ligaments and tendons) of your body. Regular practice of yoga poses can enable you to improve your flexibility and keep it for many years, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints. In one study, after only eight weeks of yoga, participants had up to 35 percent improvement in flexibility (with the greatest gains in shoulders, hamstrings, back and hips).

3. Improves posture: Many standing and sitting poses in yoga develop core strength, and a stronger core means you are more likely to sit and stand "tall" leading to better posture. Also, doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body as it teaches you how to hold and control your body in a more healthful position. This heightened awareness tells you more quickly when you're slouching or slumping so you can adjust your posture.

4. Improves breathing: Deep breathing exercises in yoga, called Pranayama, enhances your lung capacity and aims at bringing more oxygen to the blood and brain. These exercises focus the attention on the breath and teach you how to better use your lungs. Like the asanas, pranayama also calms the mind, allowing a feeling of tranquility and emotional well-being to develop over time.

5. Detoxifies the body:  As the asanas and the breathing techniques are gently massaging your organs, they are also increasing the blood flow to the various parts of the body. The increased blood flow cleans the body thoroughly and gets rid of all the toxins. This delays the aging process and also makes you feel energetic.

6. Helps against all types of pain: Many people who suffer from back pain spend a lot of time sitting at a computer or driving a car, that can cause tightness and spinal compression. Yoga is believed to decrease any kind of ache by helping the brain regulate the gate-controlling mechanism located in the spinal cord and by secreting natural painkillers in the body. Thus, it is very effective for people suffering with joint pain, back pain, arthritis pain etc.

7. Heart benefits: Yoga has long been known to lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. And now studies have shown that performing yoga and meditation at least three times a week can lead to reduction in blood pressure, pulse and overall risk of heart disease. According to a study conducted at Yale University School of Medicine, volunteers taking a six-week yoga-meditation program improved their blood vessel function by 17 percent. Blood vessel function, also called endothelial function, is the way vessels contract and expand to aid blood flow and is a measure of healthy vessel function.

8. Keeps you away from myriad of diseases: Apart from being beneficial to heart, yoga can help you against diverse ailments like digestive disorders, diabetes, arthritis, chronic fatigue, varicose veins, asthma, insomnia and multiple sclerosis. Medical researchers have begun studying the benefits of therapeutic yoga, also called integrative yoga therapy or IYT.

9. Reduces stress and promotes relaxation: Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness, increases body awareness, relieves stress, sharpens concentration and centers attention. The combination of gentle stretching, deep breathing, meditation, and guided relaxation releases body tension and calms the nervous system and emotions. Even beginners tend to feel less stressed and more relaxed after their first class.

10. Benefits during pregnancy: Yoga can help a pregnant mother cope up with the stress and fatigue so she can resume her energies and happiness. It also promotes good health to the child in her womb.

11. Accident recovery: It is an excellent recovery therapy for healing injured and sore muscles because of accidents (be it sports injury or any day-today injury). It helps in speeding the time taken to recover from an injury and preventing re-injury.

When practicing Yoga, one has to remember that it doesn't work like a crash diet. The results are not over night; it can take days, weeks or much more. But it is certain that the results will be there. Also, once you start to establish a harmonious relationship with your inner self, you will gain a complete knowledge of one-self.

So try some yoga postures today!